By Editorial team
A grassroots hygiene program is providing a critical first line of defense for families battling chronic water shortages along Kenya’s coast.
The initiative, a partnership between Detrex Soap and the Kenya Progressive Nurses Association (KPNA), is equipping communities with practical disease-prevention skills tailored to scarcity.
The program recently educated more than 200 women and children at Bomu Hospital in Mariakani. The sessions focused on effective handwashing techniques that work even with severely limited water.
Each participant also received a hygiene kit to bolster household-level prevention.Community health workers reinforced the training with direct discussions on disease prevention, maternal responsibility, and child health.
They noted that fast-growing settlements like Mariakani face heightened risks of waterborne illnesses and skin infections, especially among children under five.
“We demonstrated how to wash hands properly, even when water is limited, because that is the daily reality for these families,” said KPNA’s Triza Ireri. “When mothers see that good hygiene is still achievable, it leads to real behaviour changes.”
Rajul Malde, Commercial Director at Pwani Oil Products Limited, which manufactures Detrex, emphasized the program’s impact. “Hand washing remains one of the most cost-effective public health interventions available,” Malde said.
“What we saw was genuine engagement, with mothers already understanding the risks, and only requiring practical tools and consistent support.”
Local health workers cited established trust as a key driver of the program’s success, building on credibility from past outreach efforts.
“People listened because they recognised us,” one worker shared. “When hygiene messages come from familiar faces and are backed by practical support like soap, they move from theory into daily habit.”
The initiative underscores a broader principle for public health in resource-limited settings. “The lesson from Mariakani is that if we are serious about healthier communities, hygiene has to be treated as a shared responsibility involving families, healthcare providers and industry,” Malde concluded.
